1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to machine cutting tools, and more particularly, to control systems for machine cutting tools.
2. Description
Within the automotive manufacturing industry, die parts are used to stamp sheet metal into automotive parts. The die parts themselves are manufactured from an iron-based material being casted via a Styrofoam(copyright) pattern. Since the die part usually has intricate slots and precisely positioned holes and other physical features, the Styrofoam(copyright) pattern must be accurately shaped to allow the cooling cast iron material to assume the desired shape for stamping the sheet metal.
The Styrofoam(copyright) pattern is cut from a Styrofoam(copyright) stock piece by a numerical control (NC) tool cutting machine. Tool path data is fed into the NC tool cutting machine to indicate how the NC machine is to cut the Styrofoam(copyright) pattern from the Stryrofoam(copyright) stock piece.
Present approaches include without limitation time-intensive and trial-and-error Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) approaches to generate the correct tool path data to be fed into the NC tool cutting machine. Within this type of approach, the user of the CAM tool is usually closely involved in examining the physical characteristics of the die part to be produced. With the die part having been examined by the user via the CAM tool, the user determines a set of tool paths to cut the Styrofoam(copyright) pattern. This type of an approach may consume as much as three days to generate the correct data to cut the Styrofoam(copyright) pattern due to, among other reasons, the user being so closely involved in examining the die part and in determining the tool paths.
The present invention overcomes the aforementioned disadvantages and other disadvantages. The present invention is a computer-implemented apparatus and method for generating tool paths for cutting a physical part. The present invention includes storing geometric data indicative of the geometric configuration of the part. A plurality of planes are used to slice the geometric data. Micro features of the part are recognized based upon the sliced geometric data. Macro features of the part are determined based upon groupings of the recognized micro features. Tool path data is generated based upon the determined macro features of the part, and the tool path data is used for cutting the physical part.